erp for small business

Commercial organisations need efficient process, the focus of leadership and structure that can adapt to enable the company to grow safely as a massive 55% of businesses don’t make it to their fifth birthday. The observers offer shallow explanations as to why this occurs. I consistently see three key reasons why this tragedy occurs so often and to so many individuals with different backgrounds, qualifications and skill.

The first reason is lack of market comprehension.

Refusal to look at the water ahead. For example Individuals have the idea, create the product and then expect the market to appear and buy. In information age there is no excuse for lack of investigation before wasting any time and money on building a product until you have robust confirmed there is a market.

The second reason is lack of comprehension of the basics of business.

A significant proportion of folks starting a business know their trade, how to deliver a service or build a product, but know very little about running a company.  Being able to understand and track the numbers in the P&L or the balance sheet is an essential skill. The basic knowledge of accounting is not very often imparted coherently by the business manuals, online resources and those with the knowledge such as CPAs and bookkeepers. The problem is worsened by greedy and short sighted technology companies such as Sage software misleading the market by providing only a portion of the functionality actually needed by small businesses.

Small business accounting software isnt a complete answer.

Large corporations years ago worked out that all of their Information systems should be joined together to give them a total view of the business and then along came ERP software solutions and packages. One software developer NetSuite had the vision to see the opening in the market and started selling its small business ERP software. NetSuite pricing has since increased and put their technology out of the financial reach of small businesses.

The last reason companies don’t make it is a because of the lack of well thought through management processes and policies to enable a cohesive fabric of disciplines and behaviours.

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